As mentioned earlier this week, a new Blu Homes prefab will open for tours this weekend, September 15-16, 2012, in Joshua Tree, California. The home was built for Tim Disney with two Origin units and a separate guest unit. Each Origin unit, to give you a ballpark on the value of a home like this, starts at $135,000 in California, according to information on the Blu Homes website.

Reclaimed wood adds warmth and character to any environment, but unlike virgin wood, sourcing, installing, finishing, and caring for reclaimed wood comes with its own set of challenges. This five-part series discusses reclaimed wood benefits and current trends, as well as incorporates many of Viridian Reclaimed Wood’s past blog posts pertaining to sourcing and choosing a finish for reclaimed wood in residential construction and remodeling.

Starting in October 2012, Woolly Pocket will have a new Living Wall Planter available for sale from $26.99, according to the LA Times. The product isn’t soft like the standard Wally made with 100% recycled PET. It’s made with hard recycled plastic not to include BPA and equipped with a self-watering tank. The modular planter may be installed inside or outside and will be available in white, green, brown, gray, black, orange, and yellow.

The media relations group for Oak Ridge National Laboratory just released more information about recent field tests by ORNL of a new roof and attic system that keeps homes cool in the summer and prevents heat loss in the winter. The system is explained in the graphic embedded above (click to expand). In addition, I’ve included some graphics below to illustrate more of what the system looks like and how it saves energy.

Although the new, four-inch CR4-575L is available at Home Depot, the updated, six-inch CR6 is not at this time. So, as Doug pointed out in our comments, it may be worthwhile to post a comparison of the existing CR6-575L with the updated CR6-800L. Before doing that, note the new CR4-575L has similar specs to the existing CR6-575L with the main difference being one is made for a 4″ housing and the other is for a 6″ housing. Here’s a head-to-head of the popular six-inch CR6 downlights.

I was walking the aisles of Home Depot when I happened upon a screaming deal for the L Prize winning LED light bulb by Philips. This is the bulb, you may recall, that caused a national fuss over the reported price tag of $60. Turns out you can get the same bulb just five months later for the more reasonable price tag of $40 at Home Depot right now.